-Livemint.com * Only about half of the states have made any effort to reduce vacancies in police, judiciary and prisons * The legal aid system mandates that 80% of the Indian population is eligible to avail free legal services, says the report NEW DELHI: The first comprehensive analysis of India’s manpower and capacity for justice delivery has painted a bleak picture of the ecosystem in terms of its various elements —police, prisons and...

-The Telegraph The report examined each of the 184 voluntary pledges under the Paris climate pact Nearly THRee-quarters of the climate pledges from 184 countries under the 2015 Paris climate pact are insufficient to adequately lower Earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions and cap global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius, researchers iterated on Tuesday. India, China and the US are among the 136 countries (74 per cent) whose pledges to curb their emissions...

-The Indian Express He will sooner or later adopt stubble burning-free technology. Imposing fines or filing FIRs is counterproductive. Jalandhar: Urban residents and the courts may fulminate, but farmers in Punjab and Haryana aren’t anytime soon going to stop burning crop residue from the harvesting and THReshing of paddy using combines. They may well choose to harvest paddy with combines that have Super Straw Management System (SSMS) attachments and sow the succeeding...

-Livemint.com Since state administrations failed to contain the noxious smoke of farmland stubble fires in north India, the Supreme Court has had to order a crackdown. Here’s what else we could do There was hope for the residents of a broad expanse of north India, who faced a public health emergency due to air pollution, a significant part of which was caused by smoke arising from the burning of crop stubble—stalks of...

-Livemint.com * RCEP negotiations started in 2013 but acquired fresh impetus after the rise of protectionism globally that saw the US pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership * India has seen its trade deficit with most countries rising manifold after an FTA was operationalized India on Monday decided against joining The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a trade pact that has been spearheaded by China with the 10-nation Asean and four others. Mint...